[rbastic]

Hey everyone, well this is my first post here soo please be kind. MY dad and I have recently purchased a 67 mustang with a 289 2v in it. Like any other car enthuiast we have some resortaion plans for it. But I have done some searching and I'm not to familar with fords, I work at a GM dealership. I was wondering if I was doing a stock rebuild to my 289 2v what heads would I be able to use on it. We have a 89 crown vic 5.0 motor sitting in the garage are those heads compatable if not whats ones are. Like I said im not to familiar with fords soo any help u could help me with would be cool

[302THEBOSS]

You can use any heads off of a Ford Windsor V8 that you want as well as Clevelands. The only cylinder head from a stock Windsor that will really net you any differences would be the 351 W, they have slightly bigger ports. The 5.0 heads and the other Windsor heads are pretty much just as bad as each other and you will loose compression by swaping to them. What I would reccomend, you might not want to swap the engine, but Id recomend taking the 5.0 engine, putting your 289 heads on it for a nice compression ratio, finding a camshaft from a Mustang 5.0 (you can probably get one for like 40 bucks) and tossing an intake on top like the Weiand Action Plus or Edelbrock RPM with a Holley 600 vacuum secondary carb, and with a set of 3.55 gears it will have very good throttle response and you'd probably be happy with it.

The downfall of pretty much every Ford V8 other than the 428 CJ (and those arent grat), the 427s, and Boss engines is cylinder heads. You can use Cleveland heads on your engine but youd have to tap one hole and fill another for differencs in water passenges (not a big deal though) and buy a special (read expensive) intake. 4V Cleveland heads would be too much for what I think youre looking for youd need to rev to about 9000 rpms to make use of them on a 289, but 2V heads might work well for you. Theyd be a bit big, but if you built the rest of the engine to take advantage of them itd work well.

And then theres always the aftermarket and Ford GT40 heads. Of the bunch, the GT40s are probably what Id recomend for you if you wont use the 5.0 engine.

By the way I just noticed you live in Berlin, how old are you? Im guessing in my age group. Im 17 and own a '67 Plymouth Satellite (actualyl I own two) and I have a buddy Joe (not on the board) who owns a '66 coupe. We warmed his engine up a bit and I dont know how much work you and your father do with engines but I assume some since you have a spare lying around, but Id always be happy to lend a helping hand. Im going to be going to the car show at Uconn in a few weeks, would you go there or is your Stang off the road right now?

[rbastic]

thanks for the reply. Yea the stangs of the road as of right now. We literally just got her about 3 days ago. I just wanna go ahead and do some research on the engine before i make any big moves on it and start tearing it down. god knows its itching at me to be in the garage at this very moment to get at it. but i wanna make sure i do things the right way and have a solid amount of knowledge and funds before i commit to rebuilding the motor. I'm 23 yrs old grew up on imports and since they always go south on me we both decided a nice classic would be a great idea soo here we are with our 67 rust colored mustang that will need some tlc lol.. thanks again for the info

[302THEBOSS]

No problem, im not into imports just classics and muscle but I have a friend who is who has a 300ZX TT.

Are you planning to leave the 289 in there or not sure yet? If youre looking to make it really fast chealy your best bet would be a 351W stroked to a 383 or 393 or 408 or 427 etc if you want to stay NA but if youre just looking for a good cruiser witha nice punch the 289 wont do you wrong. You'll find that these cars are much easier and simpler to make fast, you dont need to throw a bunch of different parts at it for one mod and pretty much any engine can be easily made into a high performance mill. Your 289 wouldnt be the best platform to build 400 hp on but you could do it on your stock short block even, and remember a 289 2V was only a passenger car engine from the factory. It might not live long but its doable!

Btw your engine is rated at 195 hp IIRC, it was 200 the year before. Either way its got about 165 and is good for probably low 17s in the quarter mile. But dont be discouraged! Like I said it was a passenger car engine. I dont know how much youve done researching the performance but I figured Id let you know because back in the day the passenger car engines and common high performance engines were often over rated while the true high performance engines were often under rated. Just more that will come in handy.

What did you own before?

[.boB]

Rebuilding an engine can get to be expensive and a hassle - claning old parts, multiple trips to the machine shop and parts store, all the new parts, gaskets, fasteners, etc.

Buying a ready built crate Ford motor has become pretty inexpensive these days. Unless you just gotta have the matching numbers (which don't match) and the original engine, I would suggest you buy a crate 302 from the Ford dealer and drop that in. You'll save a lot of time, money, and hassle that way. It will look the same, too.